Rumor: Nokia to launch N9 with 12 megapixel camera tomorrow
My colleague Matthew Miller over at the Mobile Gadgeteer blog wants to know what "new market disrupting device" is Nokia planning to reveal tomorrow at the Nokia Connection for developers in Singapore. SlashGear seems to think it'll be the N9, which succeeds the N900 as the Linux-based MeeGo-running handset.
What tipped SlashGear off are the eagle-eyed members of the Maemo forums, who noticed a mention of the Nokia N9 "Buried in the Nokia Vietnam source [code] ... linked to the June 21 event at Nokia Connection tomorrow."
I'm particularly excited as the Nokia N900 is my favorite smartphone to date, but a bit sad my N900 may be going into retirement. It has a smooth UI thanks to Maemo 5, a QWERTY keyboard for speedy typing, an impressive 5 megapixel rear camera with Carl Zeiss lens (also has a front-facing cam) and a touchscreen that accurately responds to a stylus. Many of the "innovations" about consolidating all email/IM/phone/Skype contacts and conversations into individual interfaces, and a central notification module without relying on multiple apps recently announced by Windows Phone 7 Mango and iOS 5 -- were ideas already in Maemo 5, which was launched back in 2009.
Details about the N9 are conflicting but the consensus seems to be that it will have a 12 megapixel rear camera with Carl Zeiss lens like the N8, its display will be slightly larger than the N900's at 4.2" and should be thinner (less than 1.5cm thick). A teaser video of the handset posted by Pocketnow and taken down by Nokia show a N9 with a slideout keyboard like the N900 but with chiclet keys. It's likely the N9 will be running the Linux-based open source MeeGo platform as Engadget reported last month -- a combination of the Nokia's Maemo and Intel's Moblin OSes for mobile devices -- rather than a newer version of Maemo because the company has already discontinued development for that OS.
Now, I'm not sure how disruptive the N9 would be on the smartphone market as its predecessor the N900 was more of an underground hit for people who like tinkering with their devices and do not judge phones by the size of its app store. I wonder what new ideas the N9 offer has to offer the market this time around.
[Source: Maemo forum via SlashGear, GSMArena, Engadget]